Legend of Omega: The Last Human
by Zanzetkuken the Great
Summary: During the war with the Republic, a lone cheetah warrior smuggled back a two year old child to her homeland. She formed a group to protect the child. I am that child. My original name was lost, but the name the cheetah gave to me a different name. I am Omega, the last human. I am sworn to kill the ones who genocide of my race, Spyro and Cynder.
1. Prolouge

**So, I see the summary has brought you in. I'll speak to you more at the end of the chapter.**

******Disclaimer that you have seen in any other story: I do not own anything from the game canon. I only own the story concept, original characters, setting that isn't in the games, etc.**

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I was born a time after the end of the Great War. Maybe around twenty years? No, the war I am referring to is not the Maleforian Wars that so many know about, but both actually ended around the same time. I am speaking of the war between the Second Human Empire and the Zolandi nation. The war had stretched back far into the past, so far that no records have ever shown what started the accursed thing. There were times of 'peace' as times were referred to when there was only one major confrontation per year.

The war finally ended when there was a great ulcer of the planet that caused it to begin to rip itself apart before being pulled back together by a massive wave of energy. When this was seen, both of the nations realized that there were forces beyond their own that were affecting the planet that were far superior to themselves. The nations proceeded to go through intense negotiations, which lasted about a year, which actually got fairly tense whenever there was an assassination attempt. Old habits, and hatreds, die hard.

Anyway, eventually the negotiations were finished, and the two nations were combined into "The United Republic of Tharin", named after the ancient word for the continent that both nations had developed upon.

While the resentment between the two sides was still strong, seriously, who could blame them after that long of a war, the Republic eventually constructed a grand fleet to search the world for the forces that had destroyed and repaired the world. It took about fifteen years, I think, but they managed to contact a civilization that was nearly upon the exact other side of the world, but a little to the north, and a little longer to the south, as well as being a little wider than our continent. It was populated by sentient dragons, bipedal cheetahs, 3 foot humanoid moles, and a whole host of other creatures. Strangely enough, they spoke the same language as the Republic!

There the Republic found out about the events of the Maleforian Wars, and they were amazed. They wanted to have the heroes of the war come to the Republic's homeland, but knew that it would seem…suspicious that they ask the newly discovered nation to ship their heroes far away to an uncertain welcoming. So, they built up relations over the next seven years, during which time I was born, as I said earlier. When the time was right, they invited the heroes to the Republic, and were glad when they accepted. What they didn't know was that it was the beginning of the end of their world that they had made. When the heroes arrived, there was a large celebration for them. They had enjoyed the celebration, but seemed to be…distracted, I think is the proper word. When they were meeting with the leaders of the Republic, there was an attack by an aerial force of pirates. The heroes were taken to the shelters used for raids, back when the war was still going on. In there, the heroes killed the leadership of the Republic, and proceeded to destroy the capital, with the help of the pirates. In order to prevent the pirates from talking, they executed every…last...one. The heroes then managed to cross the world and got home. When they arrived there, they convinced their leaders that they had been attacked by the Republic, and had the nation prepare for war. When the Republic came to bring the heroes to trial, the nation struck back, destroying the fleet. A long war followed, and the Republic crumbled. A large portion of the Zolandi race was killed, as well as the entirety of the human race! Well, almost the entirety. A lone cheetah warrior smuggled back a two year old child to her homeland, and left her unforgiving tribe, to form a group to protect the child, which in order to sustain itself performed acts of piracy. I am that child. My original name was lost, but the name the cheetah gave to me a different name. Omega, the last human. I am sworn to kill the ones who were responsible for the destruction of my race, Spyro and Cynder.

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**I have a feeling that this will provide an interesting story, what with putting the standard heroes as the antagonists. I'll go into further detail of how this wound up happening in later chapters, but I'll leave you to wonder with your theories, for now. I'm not entirely certain I should continue this story, though, since I haven't really planned anything major past this point, though, but ideas can begin to crop up quickly. Roleplaying games on the Bay 12 Forums has taught me that using those methods can prove quite...interesting. I feel that I might need to eventually up the rating, because it is likely that things could get...ugly, to say the least.**

**Please Review.**


	2. To Know What You Are: Part 1 of 3

**Wow, I seriously wasn't expecting the response that I got. I mean, it's been a month, and my first story hasn't gotten more than 100 views, and no reviews. I've already passed the halfway point in views, and already have reviews on this one. Anyway, better stop rambling. See you at the end of the chapter.**

**Warning: Mild Language**

**Disclaimer that you have seen in any other story: I do not own anything from the game canon. I only own the story concept, original characters, setting that isn't in the games, etc.**

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_Of course, I didn't always know I was a human. Originally thought I was a rare type of cheetah. Ironic, isn't it? My enemy originally thought he was a different species as well. Anyway, I might as well start twenty years after the war, when I learned what I was…_

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-Eighteen Years after the Intercontinental War-

Omega stood upon the deck of the Excelsior, the flagship of the Zetan pirates. His slightly long black hair shifted in the breeze that was sending the ship towards its target, a merchant ship of one of the trading companies that controlled these waters. His tan skin was covered by full, brown leather armor that was studded with iron between the layers of the leather, with a steel sword hanging in its sheath upon the right hip. On his left hip was a crossbow that only went down to his knee, a custom design that he had made, which allowed for him to reload it nearly as quickly as fairly quick archer utilizing bows. However, the crossbow only had a range of ten meters. A gun barrel was mounted below the stock, but the reload time made it useless after the first shot. Attached to the armor was a cowl that he wore whenever they went on a raid, covering all but his eyes. His blue eyes were focused upon the target that they were gaining upon.

Omega looked towards the bipedal vulpine manning the ballista next to him that had, coming off the bolt, a rope, of which a portion was held around his right hand. Her name was Silonya. Her fur was dark auburn fur that transitioned into black below her knees and elbows, with white predominating the end of her tail. She wore black leather armor that signified her place as protector of the 'son of Chrateh', Omega. She had the armor from when she was a master thief, before she joined the pirates after being found trying to steal from the hoard. Ordinarily, this punishment would have warranted death, but Chrateh was impressed with the abilities of the vulpine, and allowed her to join the pirates.

Silonya noticed Omega looking at her, and gave a false seductive smile and took the same tone when she said, "like what you see?"

Omega replied, barely stifling laughter, "Of course not! I've seen bottom feeders with better looks than you!"

They both laughed at this. They knew that during her days of thievery she had been able to seduce people whom were in highly committed relationships, of the same gender, no less, to enter their homes and steal what they had. Silonya stopped laughing, and a serious tone came into her voice. "Are you entirely certain that this will work?" she asked, pointing to the bolt and arrow.

Omega replied, a smile still on his face, "It has better odds than any other plan I have made."

"That doesn't lessen my concern."

Omega thought over these words, yes most of his plans had a tendency to go wrong somehow. Be it by unforeseen events or something that he didn't consider. However, they always wound up working themselves out. "Don't worry," he said. "I've been working on this one for a long time. And don't worry; I have a backup if it fails." He gestured to the rope that he had attached to his crossbow's loaded bolt.

Silonya turned her head back to the ship that they were chasing to capture. The voice of one of the crew rang out, "Prepare to board!"

There was a rush as the crew began to organize themselves, anticipating the coming action. Omega raised his cowl over his face during this short time. Eventually, a shout rang out, "Fire!"

The ship's three ballistae fired, the front penetrating and latching onto the fore of the ship, the back latching onto the aft. The third ballista was the one with the rope that Omega was holding onto. It was fired into the center mast, and he went flying along for the ride, nearly having his arm dislocated. He let go when it was still in flight, landing upon the sail as the rope attached to the ballistae began to drag the merchant ship back towards the Excelsior. The slope of the sail, combined with the pull from the Excelsior, caused Omega to begin to slide down the fabric of the sail.

'Not part of the plan! Not part of the plan!' thought Omega frantically, drawing his blade to attempt to catch it upon the fabric of the sail and slow himself down. He was a little late, though, and went flying through the air…landing right upon the merchant ships captain, his blade piercing the skull of the mole. When he realized what had happened, he spoke aloud, "Just as planned." He then noticed that all of the guards of the merchant ship were looking at him, weaponry in hand.

It was at that precise moment that the pirates had pulled the ship close enough to board, and everything proceeded to blow up.

Most of the crew charged to engage the pirates, but five, three cheetahs and two wolves, instead attacked Omega. Omega raised his sword quickly, barely blocking the first sword strike from the nearest cheetah before jumping over the axe of one of the wolves. He defended himself well, but he was unable to land any blows upon his enemies, because whenever one opening came up, another blade was coming his way, and required for him to parry it. He was eventually forced back to the railing of the ship opposite the Excelsior. He jumped up onto the railing after dodging the blade of a cheetah, but lost his balance and fell off the side of the ship. He lost a hold of his sword, causing it to fall into the water below. He paid this no heed, because he was drawing out his crossbow. He aimed towards a portion of the mast, and fired. The bolt was sailing towards the mast, when the rope was cut by a stray arrow coming off the deck of the ship. This fact sunk in, just as Omega hit the water.

'Well that could've gone better,' thought Omega as he tried to bring himself to the surface. Whenever he did, waves struck him, sending him back under. Omega was as calm as he could be at the time, which is to say that he was panicking uncontrollably. Just as he thought he was going to die, a shape dived into the water and grabbed onto him with a single limb, dragging Omega inside a sphere of air that it had brought with it. The entity brought Omega out from below the water, and Omega's vision began to clear. He saw that the entity that saved him was a gray wind dragon. Two segmented horns were predominant upon the dragon's head, with four more coming off of the back of the jaw. The dragon's tail ended in a bodkin arrowhead shape, and its frame was leaner than most, but that is due to the nature of wind dragons.

Omega shouted towards the dragon, "What took you so long, Gust?"

The seventy year old male dragon didn't even glance towards Omega as he replied, with slight anger in his tone, "Hold your tongue, youngling. You should have waited for the actual boarding, rather than trying to take the whole crew on yourself."

Omega just smiled and replied, "At least I waited longer than last time!"

Gust replied, "Yes, and that skurvywing still has only now healed."

Omega shrugged and looked towards the merchant ship. The entire crew of the ship was lined up and killed, if they weren't dead already. Only five of the pirates of the current hundred creature crew of the Excelsior had been killed. Gust carried Omega back to the merchant ship, where Chrateh was boarding the ship, followed by Silonya, and shouting orders to clear out the goods from the cargo bay. The tan colored, gray spotted cheetahwoman's brown eyes moving on, when the person whom she gave the orders to rushed off to finish them. When Gust drew near and dropped Omega, her gold cloak billowed in the gust from his wings, causing her red leather armor to be seen. The cheetahwoman turned towards Omega, and spoke to him, disappointment evident in her voice, "I thought I told you never to go through with your plans without speaking to me first."

Omega replied, face becoming downcast, "Sorry, mother."

Chrateh sighed, "Damnit Omega, you need to be more careful, you almost died today!"

"That arrow cut my line!"

"I'm not talking about the arrow! I'm talking about how you landed right in the midst of the guards! You were lucky! If the rest of the crew wouldn't have made it across then, you would have been attacked by every one of them on the ship!"

Omega became even more downcast. He knew it was true. Before he could reply, though, one of the Excelsior's crew ran over. "Captain Chrateh!" the vulpine shouted.

Chrateh looked over to the crew member with annoyance, "What do you want?"

"Look at this," the crew member said as he held up one of the gold bars from the cargo hold. It had the symbol of the Avalar Nation upon it. The crewman took out a knife, and scraped it along the length of the bar, revealing it to be lead.

"Damnit!" shouted Chrateh, raising her voice higher, for the whole crew to hear her as she continued, "We've been set up! Sink this one and get back to the ship!"

No sooner had she finished the sentence than a cannon shot rang out, and hit the deck of the merchant ship, Chrateh, Omega, and Silonya dodging out of the way. The crew wasted no time in complying with the orders, cutting the ropes that tied the two ships together and jumping over to the Excelsior. A couple went down into the belly of the decoy ship with powder kegs, as Chrateh, Omega, and Silonya jumped over to the Excelsior as well. More cannon shots rang out, as the crew hastily got the ship ready to embark, those who set up the powder keg bomb leaping over. Gust took his place at the aft of the ship, and directed the wind into the sails, allowing the ship to accelerate quickly. The decoy ship detonated when the Excelsior was just out of range. Without the decoy in the way, Omega got a better sight of what was shooting at the Excelsior. It was the flagship of the Avalar fleet, the rebuilt Fellmuth. Though officially it went by a different name, everyone still called the ship by the name the Skavangers had given the ship. The worst thing, though, was that the ship was under the personal command of the former Malefor puppet, now legendary savior, Cynder.

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**I think an accurate description would be "Oh, shit." But why would they send a capital ship to escort a decoy. It's almost as if they knew...no, they couldn't have. Or could they? You'll find out next chapter.**

**Oh, you know something interesting? I'm not using a beta. And these chapters are mostly 'write up the whole thing and send it out.' I thank the 'If Bay Forum were a mountain hall' and it getting roughly a page by the time you build up a short post, and by then what you were writing about could have already been changed beyond belief. _And _everything needed to be well written. (well, at least grammatically)**

**Please Review.**


	3. To Know What You Are: Part 2 of 3

**Warning: Language**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing that is part of game series canon. Anything else is mine. **

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_This is a difficult part to tell. Spyro had it easy when he learned of what he was. For me, it was quite possibly one of the worst, if not the worst time of my life. Even today, those scars have yet to heal._

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When the Fellmuth came into view, there was a curious reaction amongst seventy-five of the crew. They cheered rather than jolted in fear. Then began a mutiny. Omega reached for his sword, but it had fallen into the waters. He quickly turned to his crossbow, using its gun barrel portion to block the blade of an attacker. He shoved the wolf off, and quickly loaded his weapon and fired, going right through the heart of the wolf. Silonya killed a vulpine that was sneaking up on Omega by cutting open its neck. Omega grabbed its blade, and dived out of the way of a cannon shot from the Fellmuth, which hit and killed three mutineers, but four loyalists.

He saw his mother and Gust fighting the mutineers, making their way to the Captain's quarters. Omega didn't have long to process this, as he parried the blow of a cheetah mutineer's axe. Omega was shoved back, running into Silonya, whom had been shoved back by a wolf. Omega dropped his blade as he reached for a crossbow bolt, after using the blade to stun the cheetah. He loaded and fired again, striking the cheetah on inside of the elbow. He adjusted his grip on the bow, and used the stock as a club to snap the neck of the cheetah. The sound of gurgling from a wolf confirmed for him that Silonya had killed her target.

More mutineers kept coming, and Omega and Silonya kept defending themselves, however, as the remaining loyalists were being killed off, more and more mutineers came to them. Omega eventually got some breathing room, and saw that his mother had gotten a chest, which she always had taken with her, out of the quarters and jumped upon Gust's back. She gestured to Omega and Silonya, and they knew the ship was lost. They began to dodge their way to her, but another cannon shot rang out and hit the mast. It began to fall, and the two dodged into the passage to the lower decks to prevent from being crushed.

Omega picked himself up, and noticed that he was face to face with some of the explosive bolts he had made, but never used, thanks to his mother banning him from using them when she had found out about what he was making. 'What the hell? What's the worst trouble I could get in?' thought Omega as he grabbed the bolts and added them to his quiver.

"You alright?" asked Silonya, as she was getting back on her feet.

"Nothing broken," replied Omega. "You?"

"Same here." Silonya looked up at the opening they came down through. A segment of the mast was blocking their passage back up. "We're not going back up that way, though."

Omega began to think, when he heard the cry of the Skurvywing. A plan formed within his head. Silonya saw the smile spread across his face, and spoke up, "Alright, what are the odds of it working?"

Omega looked over to Silonya, smile widening, "How'd you know?"

"Your face gave off the appearance that you had your typical insane plans. Now I'm asking, what are the odds of it working?"

Omega made a sweeping gesture, as he said, with glee, "Better than what our current situation is!"

Silonya just looked at him, and said, "What is it you need me to do?"

"Get Skurv ready and bring him to the fore of the ship," Omega said, using the crew's nickname for the Skurvywing. He loaded one of the explosive bolts into the crossbow, continuing, "and I'll make sure we have a way out."

Silonya sighed as she went to get the Skurvywing, as Omega headed towards the powder keg storage room. 'We only used these to blow up ships before. Why not use it to blow a way out?' thought Omega as he rolled a keg up the ship to the front. When he got as far forward as he could go below deck, he lashed it down, and repeated the process with a few more barrels. When he was finished, Silonya had brought the Skurvywing up, and was on its back at the far end of the hold. As he came over and climbed up, taking the reins from her, as she asked, "Are you sure this is going to work?"

When Omega aimed his crossbow at the barrels, he shouted, with insane glee, "I have no idea!"

He fired off the crossbow, and the bolt went sailing forwards, and hit the barrels of powder. When the bolt detonated, the powder keg also erupted, causing the ship to bounce up off the water from the force. Before the explosion cleared, Omega had urged the Skurvywing forwards, allowing them to barely make it out through the rather large opening the explosion caused before the ship began to fall back into its buoyant point. Omega began to fly over to Gust, whom had already taken off. Then they saw the most trusted member of the crew stab Chrateh through the heart with his tailblade.

Omega's heart stopped as he saw Chrateh begin to fall, clutching onto the chest she had taken with her for, as if her life depended upon it. Omega forced the Skurvywing to go its fastest, desperately to reach his mother in time. 'No, she can't be dead. It must've been a trick of the light, Gust wouldn't do that. Would he? Why didn't he join the mutineers, instead of fighting alongside us? It wasn't until he got her over water that he betrayed her. What is in that chest that he wanted destroyed?' Omega thought as he raced towards his mother's falling body. He had forced the Skurvywing to be just fast enough for Silonya to catch his mother. He then had to turn the Skurvywing quickly to dodge an attack coming from Gust.

"I would suggest you three hold still. It would make killing you all the easier," said Gust, with a sick glee to his voice.

Omega made the Skurvywing dodge another attack from Gust, as he shouted back, "Why would you betray us you bastard!?"

"I believe I can answer that."

Omega put the Skurvywing into a left dive to dodge a spray of poison that originated from a dragon that wasn't there before. When he turned back, he saw the dragoness whom he never wanted to see, Cynder, in her full adult form. He might have been able to manage to defeat Gust in some way, but there was no way that he could defeat a former Maleforian general turned world legend, even without Gust there to assist her.

Cynder continued to speak, "Gust was always a traitor to your crew. This point is just when he had finally managed to make contact. This is your end, accept it."

Fury built within Omega. The thought that the dragon he once trusted, considered a friend, was a spy that had stabbed his mother was overwhelming. He loaded one of his explosive bolts into his crossbow, leveled it between the two dragon whom were behind the Skurvywing, and said to them, "Fuck. You. All." He then pulled the trigger. Both dragons swung apart from each other so that the bolt didn't hit them, but when the bolt was even with them, Omega pulled the trigger for the gunbarrel. By some miracle, the powder lit, and the bullet inside went flying, and, by another miracle, managed to strike the head of the bolt, causing an explosion that caused both dragons to enter a temporary downward spiral, before they regained altitude. Omega tried to get the Skurvywing to take advantage of this and fly quickly away, but a headwind suddenly cropped up, stalling forward momentum.

"That was a good shot, but did you really think that it would do anything to us? Much less stop our combined ability over the air?" said Gust, as both dragons were approaching.

There was nothing left Omega could do. Any bolt he fired would easily be deflected or dodged. As the dragons began to close in, he looked down at his mother, her blood still bleeding out. 'He's right,' Omega thought, sadly. 'There was nothing I could have done.' He looked out into the sky, and made a short, defiant plea, below his breath, "If there is anyone out there who would find mercy upon us. Please, help us."

When he finished, a blue sphere came up around the Skurvywing and its passengers. As it finished rising, Omega fell unconscious, to the shock and worry of Silonya. When the sphere dissipated, the Skurvywing and its riders were no longer there.

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**That scene. I still don't think I have it right. It's why this took so long! I had it all written up maybe a day after the previous chapter, but I wasn't sure that it had gotten across the emotion-wrenching betrayal that I wanted to convey. I finally went F*** it, I'm going to put it up. Please review your opinion of that part, I don't know if I got it right.**

**When I started, this chapter was going to end with Chrateh revealing Omega's identity, but him being knocked unconscious and Chrateh being killed wound up being where I went. Oh well, I can introduce something that I was going to introduce a lot later in the story. Maybe even in a book 2. That's right, this isn't going to be the only part of the story. I'm going to be dividing it up into three segments. I might modify the title of this part, but I already have the titles of the next two parts: ****_The Final Day_**** and, ****_Fall of the Legends_****.**

**Final piece, I'm going to be away at a youth trip on the 18th, so you shouldn't expect anything for a little over a week after that, because there will be absolutely no electronics out there. I might bring a notebook to write portions of the story, though.**

**As I said before, Please Review.**


	4. To Know What You Are: Part 3 of 3

**Okay, I managed to get one more chapter written up before I have to leave. It might seem a little off in some places, but I (might) modify it at a later time.**

**Warning: Language**

**Disclaimer: See the disclaimer of any other chapter.**

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_Only the mercy of the entity that took me away from there saved me from dying that day. In fact, in one sense, I did die that day. Omega the cheetah died that day, but Omega the human was reborn from the ashes._

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Omega awoke to darkness. His originally thought he was still unconscious, but when he looked down at himself, absentmindedly, he saw that his whole form appeared to be illuminated by light. "Very…odd," he commented, as he took note that the light appeared to have a source, but when he looked in the direction that the source would be, there was only the darkness. After a short time observing the strange effect, he shouted, on a whim, "Infinite Featureless Void!"

Omega waited for a few minutes, and then, he heard as barest echo, what sounded like his shout coming back to him. "Well, that's certainly disappointing," Omega said.

"Are you certain that it was an echo?"

Omega was startled by the suddenness of the voice. He looked around himself, but saw that no one was there. "Who's out there?" Omega inquired.

"I am."

Omega was less startled this time, taking care to note that the voice had no emotion to it. In fact, it didn't seem like there was any gender to the entity that spoke. Omega kept looking around himself for what was speaking, responding, "Okay, then. Who are you?"

"What saved your life."

Omega kept searching for what was speaking. "That tells me nothing."

"If you were with your people, then you would already know whom I am."

Omega's rage built up. "Well considering the fact that the people who remained loyal to the crew are dead, so I was forced away from the ship, the other person who I was with isn't here, and the fact that my mother just _died_, then that statement means nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

"You are wrong."

Omega began to look back and forth rapidly, anger continuing to boil. "Where am I wrong with that?"

"You assume that you are of the race they all told you to be."

Omega's rage turned to confusion. "…What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You are not a cheetah. You are human."

Omega's face easily displayed his utter confusion. "Wh..what? Huh? I'm what now?"

"You are a human. The last human upon this planet."

Omega wound up being more confused. "How can I be human? They were all killed in the war."

"In the war between Avalar and the United Republic of your people and the race known as the Zolands, there was two especially great minds upon the side of the Republic. Both were your parents. They executed masterful tactics and developed advanced weaponry for their side. It eventually got to the point that Spyro and Cynder had to move to focus upon them personally, because they were defeating, and sometimes killing any commanders that were sent to face them. Your parents were slowly pushed back, performing tactical retreats in order to inflict as little harm upon their forces as possible, while inflicting large amounts of damage upon their opponents. Eventually, though, their luck ran out.

Their forces were surrounded by three Avalar armies. They barricaded themselves inside their house, which had been a fortress during the war that had been fought upon that continent for so long. Eventually, even its plentiful food supplies began to run out, and they performed a charge to break the armies surrounding them. Their forces fought valiantly, but eventually, your parents were all that remained of the Republic's army at that location. They didn't stop, though. It eventually took Spyro and Cynder themselves attacking them in order to bring them down. Even then, your parents managed to wound the two legends, blinding Spyro in one eye, and managing to create scar tissue down to the bone upon Cynder that formed a binding curse that prevented her or her mate from ever having children, before they died. Spyro and Cynder wanted to destroy the fortress, but they had grown weary from the battle and couldn't muster the strength. So they forced to use an alternative method, send in their forces and slaughter everyone inside.

They moved on, the fortress becoming useless to them without any simple way to restock the food, but they left a token force behind to make sure everyone was killed. Your adoptive mother was within that force, and a few days later, she found you. When she found you, the leader of the force, her mate, ordered you to be killed. You were less than three years old at the time. Chrateh wouldn't have it, so she killed off the entire force that saw her with the child, and fled.

She worked her way towards the coast, dodging the various search parties that were looking for any battlefield survivors. At any moment she could have been discovered, and would have been killed just for having you with her. However, she eventually made it to the coast, and there she met Gust. She managed to make an agreement with the dragon to take you and her back to Avalar. On the way, Gust tried to have her killed, to present her body to Spyro and Cynder, but Chrateh fought off the sailors he sent to attack her. When he noticed that the battle was beginning to go her way, he joined in on the battle, on her side. They executed the whole of the crew, and made it back to Avalar. The goal had become different, though. Chrateh could not go back to her village. She decided to form an organization to guard you, with Gust as her second in command. The organization comprised of the entirety of the crew of the Excelsior, with the remaining being the higher ranking officers on the other ships. However, as you saw, Gust managed to get to most of the rest of the organization, making them loyal only to him, rather than your adoptive mother. That is how the mutiny was so successful."

Omega leaned back in shock and awe of what the voice had told him, steadily rising as the story was told. Anger picked up when he heard the mention of Gust, and what the conniving dragon had done, even early on. When it was finished, Omega began to attempt to sort out the details in his mind, but he realized that it was futile to do at the moment. A feeling began nagging at him, and it reached the point where he had to comment upon it. "One question," Omega said. "How can I know that your word can even be trusted? I know absolutely nothing about you. For all I know, you could just be a ghost of some dark entity trying to influence me into doing something that I would rather not do."

"I expected nothing less from a human."

Omega's brow furrowed at this. "What do you mean by that?"

"I have met many of your kind before. They have always been constantly curious, wanting to delve into the depths of the unknown in order to advance their society to new heights. Almost never taking anyone's word for truth, always wanting to do things for themselves. To expierence the wonders of existence, and come out with a new understanding of the world. Some things that took other races three hundred years to learn, humans did it in thirty. While your race was never very trusting of outsiders, and occasionally even amongst themselves, your kind was always open to new ideas. What took other races over a hundred years to perfect, your kind did it within twenty or less."

Upon hearing these words, a sense of pride sparked within Omega. He was glad to be a part of a race given such high praise. However, the pride that sparked was quickly snuffed out by the nagging feeling again, so he had to speak up, "What is the answer to my question before that?"

"You know the chest that your adoptive mother was clinging to herself?"

Omega struggled to recall, memories of the death of his mother…adoptive mother, were weighing heavily upon him, causing him to lose focus at multiple times before he managed to remember. "Yes…"

"While the name may have no meaning now, I want you to remember what my name is."

Omega threw out the thoughts that were threatening to overwhelm him to focus upon the words of the voice. "What is it? He asked.

"Gaia. Now I had better release you from this state. Before your companion decides to try to drown you to see if you would awaken."

Omega became confused again. He began to say, "Wait, what do you me…" when a blinding flash of light shot over him.

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**There might not be much detail about Gaia, but that's intentional. You'll find out a bit more later on, but not much. I'm only going to be giving hints about Gaia's nature, but there won't be anything much that will be concrete, because not even the people whom were dedicated to studying Gaia know all that much about the entity. All you need to know is that it cannot act, except in very special situations.**

**Please Review.**


	5. A Path Decided

**Hello, I'm back again. I was actually back on Friday, but I didn't really work on the story up there, so I had to write all this up. If there are any mistakes, blame me accidentally leaving my computer on my bed, turned on, while I slept.**

**Disclaimer: Do I really need to remind you? It's the same every chapter.**

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_Gaia was mysterious, I barely met it then, and I wasn't able to find out much about it. I think the knowledge was mostly lost when the human race died, but even the Zolands that I met said that even they and my race didn't know much more than what was told to me when I inquired about Gaia to them._

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Omega awoke the instant before his head was forced below water. He flailed and broke the grip of the entity that was holding him under the water. He instinctively reached for his crossbow, and found that it wasn't there. He panicked for a second; allowing his attacker to successfully pull off a kick that sent him stumbling backwards onto the ground, out of breath. His attacker pinned him to the ground, and he finally got a good look at who it was, which allowed him to realize that it was Silonya.

"Thought that would wake you up," she said to him as she proceeded to help Omega get back up on his feet.

"And if I didn't?" asked Omega when he had returned to standing, brushing some dirt off of his armor.

Silonya thought for a moment, before replying, "Then I would have pulled you up, and try to wake you up by slowly cutting down your arm parallel to the bone"

Omega mentally made a note to thank Gaia for returning him to consciousness at the time that the…entity did, and asked, "Okay, then, where are we and how long have we been here?"

"We are five miles upstream of the coastal city Seabreeze along the Seibe River," replied Silonya. "It's been half an hour since that…energy brought us here."

At the mention of the sphere of energy, Omega's mood fell, as his memories came back to the forefront of his mind. He looked around and saw the large expanse of the river, with scattered trees visible upon the other side. He turned, searching around, but the expanse of forest upon this bank of the river preventing him from noticing what he was searching for, so he asked Silonya, "Where is my mother's body? Didn't we catch her with the Skurvywing?"

Silonya noticed that Omega had seen that the strike from Gust was in at a fatal point, a minor bit of relief coming over her, since it would be one bit less that she had to tell him about. She answered his question, "Yes, we did catch her body with the Skurvywing, which is back in a clearing. However, it appears that the energy transportation dissolved the body."

Omega fell to his hands and knees at this revelation and began to weep, for if there was no body to give a burial for, then prevailing thought was that the soul that went to the ancestors was destroyed. Without his adoptive…no, not adoptive. The female human that Gaia spoke of was his parent, but Chrateh was his mother. She had raised him, dealt with his mistakes and plans, and cared for him. Omega had a thought after this. Gaia had created that energy sphere to save them, and if life was worth acting for, then the force would care about the soul as well. So maybe the body wasn't dissolved, but followed a different path, to a burial in another place. While this did not brighten his mood by much, it did cause the tears to slow, and give him the strength to arise to his feet. He then remembered something about the incident, and he voiced the thought to Silonya, "What about the chest that she had with her? Where is that?"

Silonya gestured to Omega to follow her, which he did. She led him through the forest to a clearing where the Skurvywing was at, which had its reins were tied to a tree to prevent the creature from leaving. A short distance away from it was the chest that Chrateh had held onto. Leaning against it, surprising Omega, and threatening to cause him to collapse again, was Chrateh's runed sword and golden cloak. When he looked towards Silonya, she responded, "For some reason, those were left behind. Maybe whatever created the field wanted you to have them."

Omega added on the thought of thanking Gaia for at least sparing these things from the taking of his mother's body to…wherever it was that her body would be settled. He proceeded to clip the blade and sheath to his right hip, and, after returning his crossbow to his left hip when Silonya gave it back to him, he put on the cloak. A sense of calm came through him, due to the proximity of the items that reminded him of his mother. Omega then turned his attention to the chest. At first glance, it appeared to be made of Oak, but, by concentrating upon looking at the material, Omega noticed that the chest had the slight sheen of metal. The chest's lid had the appearance of a half circle from the narrower side of the chest, and the material, from the point of view of the broader side, of which one had a rune where the latch would be, followed the curve. The dimensions of the box, with the lid would fit into a one and a half feet by one foot by eight inches square. Omega studied the rune, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He asked Silonya, "Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

Silonya looked at Omega from the tree she had decided to lean against, "I have not, and I know of every sealing mechanism created within Avalar."

Omega studied it further, his mind wondering, 'She knows of all the mechanisms created in Avalar. What if this came from the Republic? Could mother have gotten it there? What did she put inside of it? What must be so important within this?'

Omega carried the chest over to the Skurvywing and secured it to the creature's back. This was going to be something that he would need to think over for a while. Right now, he had a more immediate goal in mind. Get even with the bastard who killed his mother. Trouble is, he didn't know how to go about completing that goal. He tried to recall any details about what Gust said about his former life, but the trouble is, he couldn't really recall all that much. Gust barely talked about his past, and when he did, it was whenever Omega was partially intoxicated, so much of the details were lost to him. Omega eventually gave up in his struggle, and decided to ask Silonya, "How much do you know about Gust?"

Silonya turned her head from looking at the sky to Omega, and replied, "I managed to learn more than others by not drinking till I pass out and some thieving work to maintain my skills. Why do you ask?"

Omega ignored her inquiry, and said, "What do you know about him?"

Silonya sighed, and said, "He was born in Warfang before the Maleforian wars began to heat up, and he was a respected combatant in the later portions of the war. He rose through the ranks at a quick pace, soon commanding his own ship. The war ended before he could use it in more than small skirmishes, but he did better in a later war, which is when he mutinied and assisted Chrateh on her passage from a distant land, though I now suspect that he was faking it. He has a sixty year old fire dragoness mate, who goes by the name of Infierna, and a twenty-five year old fire-wind dragoness daughter by the name of Ember. He occasionally went on absence from the Excelsior to be with them. I don't think they knew he was a pirate or a spy, but who knows? Anyway, as I said before, why are you asking?"

Omega ignored to inquiry again, and asked, "Anything more you can tell me about his daughter?"

Silonya gave him a look that displayed how serious she was, and said, "Not until you answer my question."

Omega looked at Silonya, a disturbingly neutral expression on his face. He responded, "What question might that be?"

Silonya kept her expression, repeating, slowly, "Why are you asking?"

Omega's expression did not change. He responded, disturbingly calmly, "Those reasons are my own."

Silonya's patience was stretching thin. "Omega…" she said.

Omega broke from exasperation. "Fine then, I'll tell you." He said, "I want to get even with Gust."

Silonya's became curious at this, asking, "How?"

Omega once again became emotionless, saying, "By taking his daughter away from him. If I can't see my mother, then I'll take away his daughter."

Silonya was shocked at this. "You're going to kill her?"

Omega looked at Silonya, saying, "No. She will remain alive. She will just be taken away."

Silonya understood his meaning, asking, "How can I help?"

Omega smiled. "You can tell me where they live."

"The city of Mountaintide."

Omega tried to remember what he had heard of the city. All he knew about the city he had heard snippets of from the other members of the Excelsior's crew, so he didn't have much to go on. However, he did know that it was built in one of the only places where the mountains intersected the sea, hence its name. During the Maleforian wars, it was a strategic area that was fought over only slightly less than Warfang, a city that was right next to the main concentration of Malefor's armies. The city was eventually captured through unknown means, and it wasn't until Spyro and Cynder themselves came after the place with an army of dragons was it liberated, seven years after Malefor was defeated. He asked Silonya, "How far away is it?"

"Approximately a two week journey by Skurvywing."

Omega scratched his chin. "We're going to need some supplies."

Silonya grinned. "It's a good thing you know a master thief, then. Especially one with contacts in every major city, including Seabreeze."

Omega laughed, before becoming serious, asking, "How long will it take to secure the supplies?"

Silonya thought for a moment, and said, "One week."

Omega was shocked by this. "Can you make it any less?"

Silonya thought for a time. "Maybe. One of my contacts could have some intelligence on a target, and it could be lessened by a day or two, but I can't promise that."

Omega sighed, and Silonya said to him, "Look, if you wanted to get to the city before Gust, it would have been impossible anyway. Our ship was only a week journey from Mountaintide, and the Fellmuth is able to cover that distance in a couple days, at most. Even if we had the supplies right now, we couldn't have beaten them anyway."

Omega gave another sigh, saying, "Oh well. It was good to hope for. Anything I can do to help?"

Silonya replied, "Not really. You can find a better place to hide out, but that is pretty much it. I can be mistaken for any other of my kind, unless the person knows me, but you would stick out easier than a purple dragon."

Omega hid the bit of anger that rose at the mention of the species that had done the most to kill his kind behind his exasperation. He begrudgingly said, "Okay. I'll stay back here. See you in a week."

Silonya nodded and headed in the direction of the city. Omega took one last glance in the direction she went, before gathering everything that was left and taking the reins of the Skurvywing, guiding it along the ground, deeper into the forest. 'This is going to be one long week,' he thought.

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**So I'm currently in a toss up about wheter the next chapter will skip over the events in the city, or have the chapter follow Silonya. Main reason I can't decide is because I don't have that many ideas for the section, but many for later on. Although, if there is a great enough response, I may reconsider and write the section.**

**Oh, the Ember mentioned here is almost the same as Original Series Ember, but will be different. How much so depends on what the story demands. My current ideas run her very close to the Original Series one (currently the only difference is usage of wind), but we'll see.  
**

**As always, please Review, and leave your opinion.**


	6. Timetable Moved Up

**I'm going to skip over what Silonya did in the city. To put it simply, what I envisioned for it ran into way too many spoilers for later events in the story, that I didn't want to get out at this time. I'll later write up the tale within another story, after I finish up with this one.**

**Anyway, I won't keep you any longer.**

**Disclaimer: You've seen what should go here everywhere, so why should I repeat myself?**

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_ I never found out what Silonya did in that city, but when I met her one week later, she seemed…different. I couldn't place it, and unless you had known her for a long time, you wouldn't have noticed it. I don't know what happened, but whatever occurred there had affected her deeply. We took off as soon as she came back with the supplies, and managed to make it to Mountaintide in a little less than what she had anticipated, allowing us more time to gather information. Good thing we had gotten there early. I don't know how we would have managed to pull it off if we had arrived just a few days later…_

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Omega looked out from a cave that overlooked the grand city of Mountaintide. He could see the entire city from that point, and to say it looked spectacular was an understatement. Much of the city seemed to have been carved from the mountain itself, with the port being made from the materials mined to carve out the buildings. A large defensive wall covered the only portion of land access to the city, which was a little less than thirty feet wide and curved along the base of the mountain range, at one point passing one hundred feet below the cliff. How this place had fallen was a complete mystery, until Omega and Silonya found this cave.

They had been searching for a place to land the Skurvywing, outside of the prying eyes late the night that they had finally approached the city, when Omega had noticed the cave. Silonya landed the Skurvywing inside of it, and they had rested for the night. The next morning, when they were checking for anything that could later attack them, so that they didn't have to keep watch and lose out on sleep that they needed for when they would have to capture Ember, Omega had leaned against the side of the cave in order to rest his legs, and the wall behind him collapsed, revealing a passageway. Following it, they discovered that it led to a tunnel system that had been dug underneath the city, originally used to transfer carved rock down to the port, but was eventually sealed up, to prevent it from being used as a meeting place for shadier organizations. Silonya managed to find a few places out of there into the city proper, and was out gathering information for the abduction, while Omega went back to the cave entrance to secure their exit.

Omega heard footsteps coming from deeper on in the cave, and turned his head to see Silonya coming back. Omega tossed one of the last pieces of salted meat they had to her, and she took her time eating it. When she was chewing the last bite, Omega asked, "So what did you learn?"

She swallowed the meat, and replied, "We have a problem."

To say Omega was unnerved would be an understatement, he barely managed to hide his panic as he replied, "The plan isn't going to capture her?"

Silonya looked towards Omega, "No, the plan will work. I managed to get the barrels in position to blow open a route to the tunnels, and the time it will take them to search for her in the tunnels will give us ample time to escape, but there is one factor we didn't know about."

Omega tentatively asked, "What is it?"

"It appears that as a reward for his service in having the Excelsior and its crew eliminated, Spyro is going to be taking Gust's daughter as his second mate."

Omega's jaw dropped, as he replied in barely a whisper, "Are…you..serious?"

Silonya looked at Omega, and replied, "Yes. Yes, I am."

Omega slumped against the cave wall, face downcast. "He can track us with his electric abilities. The plan will fail."

Silonya smirked. "He could, but he won't."

Omega looked at her questioningly. "Why wouldn't he?"

"He's not going to arrive until tomorrow."

Omega's spirits lifted. "So it shall be done tonight?"

Silonya mildly smiled. "Tonight it is."

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**Yeah, it's a short chapter, but it was still needed. Otherwise, it would seem way too dues ex machina in the next chapter if I didn't include that.**

**Don't anyone complain about the way I am having Ember being planned as a second mate to Spyro. For most of human history, marriages were, and occasionally still are, arranged by parents, with no input from those whom are being married. And frequently, the rich and powerful had multiple wives. Spyro and Cynder are one of the very few exceptions to the rule, because a) they are both, basically, Orphans, but mainly, b) who in their right mind would be willing to challenge them?**

**As always, please review. **


	7. The Capture: Part 1

**If things on this slow down, you can blame the facts that I am going to have a DF succession modding turn coming up (I'm putting in multiple dragon species, and two civilizations, one of humanoid lizards, and their magic manipulated 'descentants', humanoid dragons), and my school is going to be starting back up soon. But you didn't come here to hear me ramble, so on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: You know what goes here, should I really have to repeat myself?**

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_Looking back, I now see how much putting the plan into action wound up relying on pure luck. Makes me wonder what Silonya was thinking in agreeing upon the accursed thing. I don't know we made it through the first stage. Much less the entire plan…_

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Omega pressed against the alley wall in anticipation, unseen thanks to the black armor, cowl, and cloak that Silonya got him to wear for the snatching. He was in the Port sector of the city, at the point where the poor lower city met the rich upper city. It was in this area where Gust had his home, but Omega was not here to snatch Ember from the house, that was Silonya's job. Instead, he was here to create the thought of an attack to help cover their escape. There were enough guards that him and Silonya would near certainly be discovered when they went into the tunnels, but if there was a perceived attack, that would become a priority over searching for a single dragon, even one whom was going to become the mate of the World's savior.

He was not alone in this effort, for that would only make the situation of discovery worse, and likely wouldn't cause the level of chaos needed to make their escape. Instead, some of Silonya's friends were going to help the chaos by detonating their own bombs elsewhere in the city as well, in order to divide up the guards so that the 'attack' would be further believable.

Omega continued waiting for Silonya to give the signal that she had Ember and the riot could start, a few patrols going by outside the alley. Eventually, he saw Silonya arriving at the alleyway across the street, having already deposited Ember nearby the stockpile that would be blown to create an escape route into the tunnels, to give better speed for reaching the stockpile from the signaling location. After a patrol went by, she gave the signal. He stored his stray thoughts for later consideration as he slowly walked into the street, and threw one of the three customized bombs he had been given at one of the torches that illuminated the street. The fuse lit, and the bomb bounced and rolled to the base of a closed shop further down the street. Guards rounded the corner of the street, and proceeded to move towards him quickly, suspicious of what he was doing in that clothing at night. When they walked in front of the shop, the bomb's fuse ran out and it exploded, prompting Omega to begin to sprint into the alleyway that Silonya had ran deeper into.

As he ran into the alley, he heard the muffled sounds of distant explosions happening across the city, slowly radiating outwards from his initial bomb. He kept up the pace, hearing the guards break from their stupor that was induced by the suddenness of the bomb, and come after him. He ran out into another street, and barely saw Silonya enter another alley. He started running for it, but one of the guards headed him off by flying over the buildings. This halted Omega's forward progress, allowing the other dragon guards to surround him. Omega's head darted back and forth, his hand reaching into the cloak and grabbing ahold of his second bomb. The guard spoke to him, "Citizen, reveal your hands, and drop your weapon. You are under arrest."

Omega smiled underneath his cowl, and replied, "Fine then."

Omega whipped out his arm, throwing the unlit grenade towards the lead guard that had headed him off. The guards, not realizing the bomb was unlit dodged away from it, and Omega charged through the opening, grabbing the bomb on his way. The guards realized what had happened, and proceeded to go after him, again. Omega pulled out his dagger, and shortened the fuse of the bomb, before lighting it, and throwing it back. The guards thought he was trying to do the same trick, and too late did one of them realize that it was lit, causing it to detonate right in the thick of them.

The explosion sent them flying outwards, disabling their movement or knocking them out by impact with the surrounding walls. Omega didn't look back to see this, instead rushing directly for the alleyway and entering. He sprinted through the maze of the streets and alleys, dodging through the crowds that were beginning to form from panic, the sound of bombs detonating across the city. Eventually, he entered the stockpile alley, and came across Silonya, who asked, "What the hell took you so long?"

"Guards," replied Omega. "I managed to lose them, and no others managed to find me. Had to use the second bomb, though."

Silonya swore. "We needed that one to blast this open! Trying to lite the pile with the stones would place us too close to the blast for us to survive, and we need all the powder possible to breach the tunnels!"

Omega replied angrily, "I'd rather be here with one bomb than captured!"

Silonya sighed. "Yes, that is true. We still need the third bomb to close the passageway, though."

Omega swore under his breath, and asked, "Should I go grab a torch?"

Silonya frowned and said, "They would come in here if they saw you run out, grab one of the light sources and run back in."

Omega thought for a second, then he recalled the fuse he had shortened. He searched for the piece he cut off, praying that it was still there. He managed to find it barely caught upon his boot. He held it up, and asked Silonya, "If we tied this around a dagger, could you throw it fast enough for it to land on the pile?"

Silonya thought for a second, and replied, "If you use the stones to create the ignition flame, yes, I think I could."

Omega looked around, and asked, "Where's Ember?"

Silonya replied, as Omega handed her the materials, and she handed him the fire stones, "Closer to the pile, but outside the radius, don't worry, she's not going to wake up for an hour or two."

Omega nodded and they headed deeper into the alley, to the stockpile. When they arrived at the 20 barrel pile of gunpowder, Omega finally saw Ember. The pinkish gray dragoness was unconscious, legs tied and muzzle bound closed. He noticed that she would have been a little under one and a half meters if she was in normal 'standing' position of a dragon. Something bothered him about this, and after a short period of thought, he realized what it was. If Ember's growth rate was average, then it would mean that Cynder had an unusually quick period of growth. A mental check of his memories made him realize that Cynder was actually larger than Gust, whom was larger in size than most other dragons his age. It was almost as if she had reached the end of a dragon's hundred year growth cycle, fifty years early.

Silonya snapped him out of the line of thought he was going through, asking, "What's wrong?"

Omega shook his head and said, "Nothing. My mind was losing itself."

Silonya nodded, and held up the dagger with the fuse around the hilt. Omega took the hint and struck the fire stones together, causing a brilliant flame to erupt, lighting the fuse. Silonya took a few steps towards the pile, and threw the dagger. As it sailed through the air, the fuse slowly burnt itself down, eventually becoming loose and falling off. Mercifully, it's forward momentum carried it onto the pile, detonating it. Omega and Silonya were forced back by the shockwave, and when the dust cleared, the alleyway section was heavily cracked, and with a slight groan, collapsed into the tunnels below. Omega tossed the fire stones to Silonya, who caught them as Omega lifted Ember over his shoulders. The two jumped down into the tunnels, managing to land safely, and headed off into the tunnels.

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**Well, that was difficult to write. I had to completely rewrite some portions of this chapter in order to get it to be more 'realistic'. Seriously, some ideas seemed good at first, but the more I thought about them, the less sense they made.**

**A word about 'fire stones': They aren't really stones, but an orange crystal that when it strikes with another one of its kind, creates a small, intense flame that lasts for less than a second, but long enough that anything flammable will catch on fire.**

**As always, please review.**


	8. The Capture: Part 2

**Here you go, another chapter.**

**Warning: Language**

**Disclaimer: Should this need to be repeated?**

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_I know the true answer now. I don't like it, but I know what it is._

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Omega and Silonya ran through the tunnels, hurrying to reach their destination in as short a time as possible. Suddenly, they heard the sounds of guards entering the tunnels. Adrenaline rushed through the veins of the two as they heard the guards spread out to search the area for any attackers using the tunnels as an escape route. The two were making good time towards their objective, when they heard the wail of fury. Then they heard the sound of something coming their way fast, faster than they could possibly run. Omega and Silonya took evasive measures, moving off the path they were heading down into a side route that they had planned out for before use. However, whatever it was managed to track them, as they heard it turn and enter the alternative path. They worked their way through the various alternative paths, but whatever was following them was relentless.

They had made it into the last tunnel before the branch to the passage to the cave, when it caught up with them. It knocked Silonya and Omega to opposite sides of the tunnel, grabbing Ember from where she had laid on Omega's shoulders. The creature went over a short distance, and set Ember down, checking the dragoness's vitals. Omega came out of the daze that overcame him, and in the dim of the torches that him and Silonya had set up throughout the tunnels, he got a good look at what it was that attacked them.

It was an adult red dragoness. While she had a somewhat more spaded tail blade, and slightly stronger build, there was no denying the fact that she looked highly like an older version of Ember, which displayed that there was a close familial level relationship between this dragon and Ember. And Ember apparently had no siblings or cousins. 'Shit,' Omega thought. 'It's her mother.'

Infernia gave a low growl at Omega and Silonya. The dragoness then launched fireballs at each of the two, who barely dodged in time. As they were picking themselves up, Infernia spoke, "I could alert the guards to find you. In fact, I would expect they would be coming this direction right now, but…" The dragoness's tone became infinitely more threatening. "you tried to kidnap my daughter. I'm not letting you leave my sight alive."

Omega and Silonya dived apart from the fire breath that threatened to scorch them. The dragoness charged the nearer of the two, Omega, but was stopped by sudden pain from a dagger thrown by Silonya becoming lodged in her right shoulder. The dragoness turned towards the vulpine, and prepared a fireball. Omega decided to take the distraction and dive past the dragoness, managing to get the still-unconscious Ember over his shoulders, just as the dragoness launched the fireball at Silonya.

Silonya charged at the fireball, sidestepping at the last second, rolling past the dragoness and reaching Omega. The two started to bolt towards the exit passage as Infernia took notice of the two, and charged after them. They made it halfway through the branch when Infernia launched a fireball at them. It hit the ground behind them, but Omega nearly lost his footing, causing him to stumble a bit before continuing his run. In this stumble, unnoticed by both him and Silonya, he dropped the bomb. As they entered the passage, Infernia tripped upon the bomb, causing her to lose her footing, necessitating her to stop to prevent herself from falling.

Once they got to the safe range, Omega and SIlonya smiled. Omega quickly set down Ember, and Silonya took out the fire stones. Omega reached for where he thought the bomb was, but his hand didn't run into it. He searched frantically, but could not find the bomb. Then an expression of dread crossed his face as he remembered something running into his leg when he stumbled, and realized it was the bomb.

"Sil," he said, using a nickname that he had given his guardian that he only rarely used, due to her threatening him with a knife when he first started using the name. "We have a problem. The bomb fell off my armor back in the tunnels."

Silonya swore. "How are we going to close off the tunnel now?"

Omega saw Infernia's head come around the corner of the tunnel, noticing that she was preparing to use a fire breath attack. "That's how," he quickly said as he picked up Ember and started running. Silonya saw what was happening as well, and hurried after Omega as the attack began to work its way up the tunnel, lighting off the gunpowder. They were thrown forwards by the force of the blast, ears ringing, but except for a few bruises, they were intact. Their hearing slowly returned, and both heard frantic digging occurring on the other side of the rocks that now blocked the passageway behind them. Without a word, Omega dragged Ember upon his shoulders and they hurried along the passageway.

The group soon arrived at the cave, and Silonya speedily climbed up on the back of the Skurvywing. Omega passed Ember up to her, and, as they were securing Ember to the back of the creature, a roar echoed up through the tunnel. Infernia had made it through the rubble. From the mouth of Ember came the muffled word, "…mom?" Omega and Silonya redoubled their pace at the cue of both of these sounds.

When Ember was secured down, Infernia burst through the passageway. Omega, thinking quickly, grabbed his mother's blade and his crossbow. He shouted to Silonya, "Get Ember out of here!"

Silonya shouted back, "What? I can't lea…"

Omega interrupted by shouting, "Just do it! You can come back for me later!" Silonya had the Skurvywing take off, the unspoken words 'If I survive' hanging on both their thoughts. Infernia prepared a fireball to launch at the escaping Skurvywing, but Omega pulled the trigger on his crossbow, a bolt flying forwards and striking the dragoness, causing the aim to go wide as the resulting fireball slammed into the ceiling.

Infernia turned to Omega, the distraction giving time for Silonya to escape, and looked him over, anger turning to curiosity. She said to him, "Interesting, you are using the same combat style as a cheetah my mate told me about."

Omega replied, his guard remaining up, "Really? What did he say?" He reached to reload his crossbow, before realizing that he forgot to grab spare bolts. He only had one bullet and a sword, and he was going into combat with a dragon. 'This is bad,' he thought.

Infernia laughed, before responding with, "He said it was a combat style he never saw before, but required far too specialized equipment for it to be feasible, and that the man was a traitor with others, and is now dead. I am curious, how did you come by the equipment?"

Omega smirked, though it wasn't visible due to his facial coverings, and replied, "I have it because I am that man."

Rather than laughing at the absurdity of that statement, the dragoness asked, "How is that possible?"

Omega chuckled. "Something decided to save me," Omega replied. "Oh, and your mate actually lied to you about the race."

Infernia laughed at this statement, "My mate would never lie to me."

Omega smirked, and hung his crossbow on his left hip. "Oh? Then how am I…" Omega said, pulling off his coverings to allow the dragoness to see what he was, ending with "human?"

Infernia gasped, shock visible on her face and in her words, as she said, "No…it can't…impossible…I don't believe this! This can't be real!"

Omega laughed, saying, "Believe it! This is real! You weren't able to kill all of us!"

Infernia growled, "You'll die like the rest!" The dragoness fired a fireball at Omega.

Despite his instincts saying otherwise, something deep inside him told him to block the fire with his sword. He listened to the voice, and the most peculiar thing happened. The fire bent around the blade and was absorbed into it, the sword gaining a red glow. Extreme confusion raced through his mind, but his face was one of pure confidence. He listened to the feeling again, as it told him to flick the blade, the point towards the shocked dragoness. The same fireball that was absorbed into the blade raced towards the dragoness, the red glow that surrounded the blade fading. She was knocked against the back wall, the level of shock and damage from both the earlier blast and the unexpected flames causing her to struggle to get up. Omega calmly walked over to the struggling dragoness. She panicked and asked him, as he drew his crossbow and leveled the secondary gunbarrel at her, "Why?"

Omega replied, "Your mate killed the person I cared the most about and destroyed my life. I'm returning the favor." With that, he pulled the trigger, the bullet diving straight into the dragoness's skull and killing her.

Omega turned and saw some of the city guard had arrived in the passageway, and had seen everything after Infernia had launched the fireball at him. He went into a defensive combat stance, but was interrupted by the cry of a Skurvywing. Silonya flew the Skurvywing into the cave, and Omega jumped upwards, the Skurvywing grabbing onto his shoulders. Silonya quickly flew the Skurvywing out of the cave, but not before the now awake Ember saw her mother's dead body, and cried out in anguish.

Omega's face grew long as Silonya expertly piloted the Skurywing through the mountains to get away from the guards. He hadn't meant to go that far. It was almost as if something else took him over. He recalled stories of how the ancestors of dragons came to them to teach the dragons, and wondered if something similar had just happened to him. The more he thought about this, the less likely it seemed. Sure, dragons could be contacted by their ancestors, but no other race had that happen. Besides, the experiences dragons had described were of speaking with their ancestors, and that didn't happen to him. As Silonya slowly began to lose the guards, one thought came through his mind, 'What if it was Gaia? Or one of its servants?' After a long debate in his mind of whether it was that or previously unknown battle instincts, during which Silonya had lost the guards, and began heading towards a safer area, he decided to stick with Gaia or servants explanation…for now.

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**Do you agree with Omega's conclusion? Or do you have your own idea? All I can say is that isn't corruption on his, or any of his companion's, parts, because I haven't exposed them…yet!**

**Random note: I had "Ready Aim Fire" from Iron Man 3 playing in the background when I wrote the second confrontation where Infernia dies.**

**Please Review.**


	9. Liberation: Part 1

**Sorry for taking so long. School wound up making this delayed.**

**Disclaimer: Why should I repeat this, yet again. Better yet, why in the world am I complaining about this to you?**

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_After we had taken Ember, the sheer response was nothing short of unexpected in scale. I'm still not really sure whether they really wanted Ember back, or they were looking for me, though I'm pretty sure it is the latter. Don't tell her, she would be very annoyed..._

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_-5 weeks after the taking-_

Omega was hidden in the tall grass, at the top of a hill, as he observed another of the encampments being assembled in the grasslands east of the Storm Province capital, Tornadae. The human watched the cheetahs, leonins, dragons, and other races constructing the base camp, and he thought, 'Looks like we are going to have to leave soon. The birth-province of Volteer is no longer as attractive of a hiding place as it was earlier.'

Omega slid down the hill, away from the encampment. When he reached the bottom, he turned and broke into a careful run back to the bolt hole Silonya was keeping an eye on Ember was at. As he hurried to the location, his mind absently wandered back to the conversation he and Silonya had after they had taken Ember.

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_-5 weeks earlier-_

Ember had cried herself to sleep upon the back of the Skurvywing. Omega and Silonya didn't dare unbind her so close to her home. She could try to fight her way back, and that would have made everything for naught.

Nearby, leaning on a outcropping, Omega was watching the distant fires of watchtowers slowly lighting. Silonya wandered over to him, a look of anger upon her still remaining from when Omega had killed Infernia. Omega glanced over to her for a second, before returning to watching the distant fires, regret etched upon his face. Silonya said to him, "What the hell is wrong with you? You think that no one can kill your mother, but you go ahead and do the _exact_ same thing to someone else?"

Omega continued watching the fires, seeing a new one sprout up. "It's not that sim..." he began to reply.

Silonya furiously interrupted, "Don't give me that apeshit! Tell me exactly what the hell was going through your mind when you did that!"

"It's hard to ex..." Omega began to say, when Silonya interrupted, saying, "Try."

Omega sighed. "I've...I've been thinking about it. Something was off during it..."

Silonya's anger ebbed with this comment. "Off? Off how?"

Omega's face became quizzical. "I don't know. It's just, I didn't seem to be in total control at the time."

Silonya's hand absently went to her hip dagger as her suspicion began to grow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Omega detected the suspicion in her voice, and realized the implications of what he had said, if a person didn't have his memories. "It's not anything like a possession. My mind was in total control, yet, I was only partially in control."

Silonya became confused with this statement. "How can you be sure?"

Omega thought back. "When Infernia launched the fireball at me, my mind was telling...no, _screaming_ at me to move...yet, something told me to remain there and raise the blade to block the fire. When that voice spoke, a portion of me, that also wasn't me, followed it. It was because of that, that the blade absorbed the fire..."

Silonya was bewildered at the last statement Omega made. "What do you mean 'absorbed the fire'?"

Omega looked over at Silonya quizzically. "What do you mean? This is my mother's blade. Haven't you seen the runes..."

Silonya looked at Omega, confusion etched upon her face. "I've seen the blade. There are no runes on it."

Omega slowly removed the blade from its sheath, asking, "Then how do you explain these, then?"

Despite the level of darkness, Silonya's enhanced vision managed to pick up on the shapes of the runes that were now, mysteriously upon the blade. She gestured for the blade, saying "Can you hand it to me, so I can get a better look?"

Omega handed the blade to Silonya, and as soon as it left his hand, the runes faded back into solid steel. She nearly lept back in startlement, as Omega, whom hadn't seen the runes fade frantically asked, "What's wrong?"

Silonya recovered and stared at the blade for a short time, before responding with, "I don't know. The instant your hand left the blade, the runes faded."

Omega gestured, and Silonya handed the blade back. As soon as Omega came into contact with the blade, the runes returned, once again startling Silonya, but not so much that she couldn't speak to ease Omega's discomfort at her startlement. "When you put your hand back upon the blade, they returned."

Omega muttered, "It must be because I am human."

Silonya heard Omega's muttering, and was startled. "When did you find out?"

Omega looked up, seemingly not knowing what she was talking about. "Find out what?"

"That you were human."

Omega sighed. "Do you remember when we were taken away from the fall of the Excelsior..."

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Omega had told Silonya everything about what he had spoken with Gaia about, save a few things, such as how Gaia had described humans. Afterwards, Silonya suggested that they try to see if the old hermit in the Valley of Avalar was still alive. She reasoned that if anyone on this continent would know something about such a force, then it would probably be him, since the hermit was said to have known much more about the world than anyone else did. Omega agreed that it would at least be worth a shot, but when they arrived at where the hermit supposedly lived, they had found the place ransacked, and it appeared to have been done recently. There was no blood, or any sign of a struggle, so it was deduced that the hermit had moved on to a different place, before whatever had happened, had happened.

Omega and Silonya worked their way through Silonya's contacts throughout the many cities of Avalar, but they did not find much. That is, until one of the contacts mentioned that a cheetah that looked a great deal like what the hermit supposedly looked like was seen going into the Storm Province. They moved on to the province, and Silonya had been using all of the contacts she had in order to find the hermit, while Omega kept watch over the movements of the encampments.

Omega began to slow as he approached the area of an encampment he had spotted earlier. There was a great deal of activity occuring inside of it. Curious, Omega crept closer, using the knowledge of stealth that Silonya had been teaching him over the course of the previous weeks to be able to get fairly close to the encampment. In it, he saw a cheetah being escorted through the camp, under heavy guard. This perplexed Omega, why were they so focused on guarding this particular cheetah?

He slowly crept around the encampment, watching as the cheetah was taken inside the complex's main structure. He managed to work his way around to the back of the structure without being seen, where he listened to the conversation inside.

A voice said, "...or are you not the hermit?"

Another voice, possibly the cheetah's, responded, "Why should it matter to you?"

The first voice laughed, "Don't worry, you are not in any form of trouble, we just need some information."

The second voice responded, "...what sort of information?"

"First, conform for me whether or not you are the hermit."

"The hermit has died, he couldn't live any longer than any other cheetah."

"Then who are you?"

"I'm his son."

Before Omega could begin to comprehend the significance of what he just heard, a guard rounded the back of the structure, the two stared at each other for a second, before the Guard began to shout, "The human is here!" Omega fired his crossbow into the leonin's neck, killing it. But the damage was done, and he was detected. The call was carried up by the rest of the camp, and Omega knew if he remained, he would be found. However, the one he and Silonya had been looking for was in there, and who knows what information they wanted out of him. He made the call, and cut through the fabric that made up the wall of the structure.

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**As always, please review.**


	10. Announcement And Stuff You Should Read

**I appologize for the lack of an update for so long. While this isn't an update, keep reading, because I am in need of other opinions. I've had one idea that I've been kicking around for a short time. It involves both this story, and the other one I made for Dwarf Fortress. Namely, having a time skip in the latter...then recombining it with this one. This wouldn't interfere with the plots of either story, because, well, I never had any outlined plot for either, just some random assortment of ideas that somehow I managed to get flowing. I know, horrible idea, but don't forget that I learned much of what I know from a somewhat-freeform-with-a-central-gm'd-plot-with-so -many-derails-rerails-and-other-stuff-that-somehow -worked-out-even-with-a-few-dozen-unknown-subplots forum game. Hey, it lasted over 500 pages across two threads before the whole thing came crashing down from overt complexity, so we must have been doing ****_something_**** right. As I said, please review your opinion on your thoughts of the recombine the stories thing. And don't give me 'you're the author, you should decide', I want your opinion if I should do it or not, since I have no idea!**

**Oh, and that thing brings up something else I had in mind: succession writing, in which each person writes the chapter to a story. PM me if interested. Or, you know, put that in your review as well...and don't say anything it not working because there would be too much chaos, because that's kinda the point.**


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